Wow! So much is going on with this thread. I think we've woven an entire tapestry of tales by now. Thank you for all the stories, pictures and information. It's like reading Extreme Guinea Fowl Tales on a daily basis. That's what our lives are like with those Guineas! Mine let themselves out of their run yesterday morning, well actually we had another storm and it opened up the gate. when I went down to let them out in the morning, they were already gone. I did a circle around the property and found them happily poking around in the grass by a bunch of cattails. Phew!
My husband and I are trying to brainstorm some ideas on the nesting boxes. I know Guineas prefer to next outside, but we're hoping to entice them into laying in the coop if we can - we're brainstorming some ideas I've read about - A-frame houses, locating them in a darker and quieter area, putting in a lot of straw for them to burrow (similar to their making a depression in the dirt) and mimicking nature (maybe some tree branches) and great idea on using the grass fringe. Who knows? We figured it's worth a try. And we'll put them under that enormous roosting structure and creating a poop catcher above.
I bought an end table at the Salvation Army yesterday. It has potential to be used as a hopping bench, but I think it's a bit tall. They're still using their baby perch to hop onto and jump up to the roost area. Very sad as everyone wants to fit on the top roosting perch, but they don't all fit. They keep trying to jump on each other and then someone ends up fluttering down. I'm afraid they are going to get hurt, but I don't want to go crazy redoing everything in coop we're only going to be using for another month or so.
Like Sun, I'm having an issue with shunning. Not sure what to do about that either except get more females (still trying) and get them all on the same perch level. After that terrible night with the storm, the two males that were chasing one another - one of them is now being shunned. I think he is now a demoted leader who had his woman stolen away from him. There are three of them (two males and one female), who keep him away from the group. He tends to free range on the fringe, I have to coax him into the coop every evening and he won't eat with the others so I feed him in a separate dish in the run area. Anything else you can think of to help the situation? I have to say, he's been one of my favorites, so it probably bothers me more. I call him BOSS - he's always the first one to come up and check things out, beautiful boy with a big waddle, but he's not aggressive at all. Wish he was just a little bit - maybe he wouldn't be shunned if he gave some of it back to them.
Window Guineas and Pocket Guineas - it sounds like a new fashion fad. We could start something here and make millions! Ha!
Sun - Good luck with your runt. They are so sweet.... the lavenders are precious keets - if one of my offers on Craigslist gets accepted, I might be adding some lavenders and pieds. Would be fun to have a variety... yes, just like potato chips - can't stop! And, good luck with those 49 eggs!!!!
Oh my!!! Keep giving us status reports - you will be having to add on to all those lovely guinea condos you have going on there, just to house your keets. Off to deliver some veggies! Have a great day everyone...
